The losing skid has finally come to an end, as the Golden Knights ended their four-game slide with a 4-2 win in St. Louis on Thursday night, getting revenge on the Blues, who won in Vegas on Monday afternoon.
Vegas took a 2-0 lead early on, with captain Mark Stone setting the tone 19 seconds into the game when he snagged the puck from Cam Fowler in St. Louis’ zone and then beat Joel Hofer to give the Knights an immediate lead. Victor Olofsson followed with his 11th goal of the season at the 8:54 mark to give the Knights a two-goal cushion.
Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomas Hertl also scored for the Knights, while Ilya Samsonov saved 15 of the 17 shots he faced.
It marked the second time the Knights held a team to less than 17 shots over their last 27 games, dating back to late November.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
CAPTAIN BACK: Stone, who finished with a goal and an assist, scored his first goal in six games and just his second in eight games. Prior to that, he had scored in three straight, while registering points in nine of 13 games.
“I thought we played well,” Stone said. “We continued to execute. We did a good job sticking to our game, our system and using their aggression to our advantage. I like the way we played tonight. If we can do a lot of the same things (Friday in Dallas), quick turnaround. We’ll have to have a quick start.”
POWER PLAY: With Dorofeyev’s goal, the Golden Knights have scored on the power play for the seventh consecutive game. Despite a 2-4-1 slide since Jan. 11, the Knights rank No. 1 with a man advantage, converting on eight of 20 (40%) power-play attempts. Vegas now heads to Dallas with the league’s second-best road power play (16 of 53, 30.1%).
“It’s nice,” Ivan Barbashev said of the power play. “We got a lot of skilled players that can finish.”
GOALTENDING: After coach Bruce Cassidy called out his goaltenders following Monday’s home loss to the Blues, Samsonov’s two-goal allowance was the fewest goals the Knights have allowed in five games. Over their previous four, teams were averaging 4.5 goals per game. Vegas was the only team to limit teams to fewer than two goals per game in December when they gave up 1.92. This month, so far, they’re allowing 2.81.
“Defensively we didn’t give up a lot, it just felt like we were never in trouble,” Cassidy said. “It just didn’t feel like we caved in for long stretches. … End of shifts we didn’t give them freebies. We were all determined to play the right way. … I just thought our decision was good from start to finish.”
